This invention is related in general to apparatus for controlling the starting and duration of operation of a load connected to a power source, said load being electrical, electronic, or mechanical apparatus.
This invention is also related to apparatus controlling the quantity or period of time for the supplying of electrical energy, gas or a liquid.
In its simplest expression the invention is related to those devices which provide a product, a service, or give access to a specific place.
The devices to which the invention refers are actuated by means of the insertion therein of coins, magnetically coded tickets or any magnetic recording media.
Because the invention refers to an electronic device which includes logic circuits combined with actuating mechanical means, the scope of this invention should be restricted to devices which include electronic circuits for their control.
In addition, since the device of the present invention uses for its actuation coded magnetic recording medium, its scope should not include those devices which function when coins are inserted.
Up to the present time, devices similar to those of this invention which operate by the insertion of magnetic recording medium incorporate a great number of circuits and devices which are extremely complicated in their construction and manufacture and which do not include effective and simple means for the identification of codings and the indication of the functioning or operation of the load, thus permitting the user by means of artifice to utilize the load without complying with the requirements established therefor.
Furthermore, devices similar to those of the present invention which operate by the insertion of tickets or coded magnetic recording medium do ont invalidate them after their use, thereby permitting their improper re-use and also imposing the need for collecting said coded magnetic recording medium which have been inserted into the apparatus, in order to destroy them, with the corresponding costs of maintenance and labor involved.
Another disadvantage of many of the devices similar to those of the present invention, which operate by the insertion of coded magnetic recording medium, is that for detecting the code they require a constant speed of insertion, thereby entailing complex and costly vacuum or carrier devices.
Furthermore, for the case of a television receiver, the operation of which is controlled by a channel tuner, there has been a need for an apparatus in which the user, before cancelling the recording medium in order to operate a given channel, be entitled to watch for a short time the program on the channel in order to decide if he wants to view that channel for the whole period normally allowed by means of inserting and invalidating a recording medium or magnetically coded ticket, and wherein the time of interruption in case of power failure be computed.